Bonding Experience
by Thessily Thessilonikki
Summary: Why then, does the Padawan wear a braid? Is it so that he or she bonds with his or her master? Something written to amuse myself, here now for you to do with what you will. Slash, Ani/Obi


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Foreword: Okay, so. I don't own the characters. Lucasfilm does. Wish I did tho. That'd be nice. Anyway. This stems from my musing about why a Jedi Padawan has a braid. I mean, is it a thing where they bond with their masters or what? SO I'm musing. Enjoy.

Bonding Experience

"Anakin!"

The Jedi Padawan almost ran and hid. He knew what that tone of voice meant. He smoothed his hands over his damp hair, the messy ponytail and the ragged braid, trying to make them look as though they didn't need to be fixed.

"Yes, Master?" he called. Obi-Wan came into the room.

"Come with me, Padawan mine," Obi-Wan said. Anakin stood slowly, reluctantly.

"I can do it myself, you know. I'm not a little kid anymore," Anakin said, looking up at his master. Obi-Wan smiled at his thirteen-year-old Padawan.

"You know why we do this, Anakin," Obi-Wan told him. Anakin nodded and followed him unhappily.

~`~

Anakin sat silently on the bed, toying with a bit of fringe on the blanket. Waiting. The room was cool on the back of his neck, on his damp hair. He didn't like it. Didn't like cold.

He sensed his master coming into the room, through the Force. He didn't turn, didn't move as Obi-Wan took up a seat behind him on the bed.

"You used to hate this," Obi-Wan said, sliding his fingers through his Padawan's thick hair. "You used to whine and say that you weren't a little kid. That you didn't want me to do this. Always had an excuse for me, young Padawan. Do you have one now."

"No, Master," Anakin said, a chill running down his spine. He felt an urge to lean back against his master. "I understand that it is important to our relationship now."

Obi-Wan nodded. "It is meant as a bonding experience. Most masters and apprentices talk. You never do, Padawan."

"I have nothing to talk about."

"There are always things to talk about, Anakin."

"No, Master."

Obi-Wan tugged at the long lock of hair that would soon be Anakin's braid. Anakin moved with it.

"You have closed yourself off from me." Obi-Wan said.

"What do you want me to say?" Anakin asked.

"Tell me about the dreams."

"My mother—"

"The dreams, Anakin, not the nightmares."

"I don't know what you're talking about, Master."

"Anakin." Obi-Wan said in his teacher voice. Anakin sighed.

"You share nothing with me," Anakin said, looking down at his hands. "The whole time I've been your apprentice, you have shared with me only the things that Qui-Gon would have shared with you." He did not stop, even though his master winced and opened his mouth to admonish his rudeness. "I am NOT you, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and you are not your master, and you never will be."

"Anakin!" Obi-Wan cried out, his voice sounding choked. His hands dropped from Anakin's hair.

Anakin turned and looked at his master, his face hot, hurt and angry and embarrassed all at the same time. At the look on his master's face, remorse welled up in him.

"No, I am not Qui-Gon. I suppose that I am not half the master he was. You don't know how many times I have doubted my ability to train you, Anakin. You don't know how many times I've lain awake wondering what I'm doing wrong, why the bond between us is not as strong as it was with my Master." Obi-Wan kept his eyes trained on his Padawan's face. "I wonder if I shouldn't have honored my Master's wish to train you. If I should have allowed someone else to do it, or let you be taken away."

Anakin's lips parted, about to speak. Obi-Wan continued before Anakin could find the words.

"I know that we spoke once about my sharing things with you, when you were younger. And since then, you have stopped sharing things with me that you would have, once. I no longer know what to do, Anakin." Obi-Wan said.

"I'm sorry Master. You should not have been forced to do something that you could not. I should not have been your Padawan." Anakin said the words, though in his heart, he did not mean them. He wanted nothing more than to be trained as a Jedi, if not by the man who had found him and believed in him, then by the man that Qui-Gon had trusted more than anyone else.

"Never say that what has happened was not meant to be, Anakin. Everything that has happened has been the will of the Force, and that I believe in my heart, Padawan mine."

Anakin stared at him. "You have not called me that for so long, Master. I have only been Anakin, or Padawan, like I belong to someone else, or like I should."

"You will never be anyone else's apprentice, Anakin," Obi-Wan said. He smiled. "Not only because I wouldn't let you, but also because I think no one else would have you. Or be able to handle you. Or really want to deal with you and your mood swings. Or—"

"I get the point," Anakin said, life coming back into his eyes. "Does this mean that you'll talk now?"

"Does it mean that you will?" Obi-Wan asked. "Turn back around," he said. Anakin obeyed. Obi-Wan took up the long strands of hair and again began to twine them together.

"If you really want me to," Anakin said. Obi-Wan tied off the braid and turned Anakin to face him.

"You used to do it anyway," he said.

"That was before."

"Before what? Our discussion? Anakin, you were thirteen! And I seem to recall you being unable to keep your mouth shut for quite a while after that. Tell the truth, darling Padawan."

"Before I loved you."

"Loved me?" Obi-Wan, for once in his life, was completely astounded.

"Against the rules, I know. That's why I stopped telling you. I didn't want you to be angry with me for having yet another un-Jedi emotion."

Obi-Wan suddenly hugged his Padawan tightly. "I don't mind, Anakin. I really don't."

"Promise?" the apprentice asked.

"Promise," Obi-Wan said. Anakin smiled and hugged him tightly, and Obi-Wan flipped the damp braid over his Padawan's shoulder.

Maybe they weren't so bad off as Master and Apprentice after all.


End file.
